John Dolva

Yes, Paul. That's the point I'm making. In '63 the overturn was in the future. On another matter. Watts (Brig Gen, reserves?) (and Loony and co* from Oklahoma) is an interesting fellow that afa I've come across is somewhat enigmatic. He stuck with Walker for quite some time. He was with him during the MAD episode (MAD mag ridicule of Hoover) in the late '50s, through to the shooting of Walkers window frame and Walkers investigation of it, to the Presidential Commission hearings. I would like to know more about him. (too) edit add * pro bono?

He wasn't called tricky for nothing. Apart from the obvious historical events that led to that moniker he was part of the importation of nazis for resettlement to boost republican votes apart from other likely sympathies. Either way he was unprincipled through and through. (Ewald Peters comes to mind, threre is too little known about him) from early on till his demise on many many matters. I find the notion of him being somehow excusable for whatever participation direct or by omission somewhat daft.

Reading back on this topic there a a number of very interesting contribution and deserve prominence. I just want to add, unless it has already been done, the comment that Walker, while the full amount of his financial resources may be in doubt I think it's fair to say that the first set of posts that dealt with his monetary worth, while in the end may not have amounted to as much as was 'promised', he had 'value' that could be based on the 3 million odd figure arrived at and can be considered a potential asset that could justify freeing up 'real' capital. imo.

Paul, I think they may be housed at the Texas Tech Library in Lubbock, TX. Scroll down to the Melvin Munn collection http://www.swco.ttu.edu/Guide/M.htm Munn was the voice of Life Line Radio. He discussed the Kennedy Assassination and H L Hunt in a 1981 oral history: http://www.swco.ttu....tracts/1774.htm Perhaps of interest: Billy James Hargis Papers: http://libinfo.uark..../mc1412/2-3.asp Thank you, Michael, for this helpful research. I would not have guessed that Texas Tech would house the Melvin Munn collection. I sent their Southwest Collection staff a query, and am waiting for their response. I'm especially interested in the SEP-NOV '63 transcripts for LIFE LINE because of a newspaper article in the Austin Statesmen on the day after the JFK assassination in which a Texan claimed that the rightist rhetoric in LIFE LINE had been increasingly hostile in the past several weeks. I'd like to see that with my own eyes. H.L. Hunt was a financial backer of General Edwin Walker, and they were ideological soul-mates. H.L. Hunt once financed the "Douglas MacArthur for President" campaign. That was a flop, but H.L. Hunt always hoped to elect a President that he could control -- or at least one that thought 100% as he thought. Hunt preferred military types for President. I believe that Hunt may have been involved in convincing General Walker to resign from the Army and give up his pension with the promise that Hunt would finance his political career. After resigning from the Army, General Walker had no visible means of support, yet he had a lot of money. He moved into a large house in a plush neighborhood in Dallas, and he took an office in a tall building that belonged to, as I recall, the American Oil Company. Walker had money to fly around, and within months of resigning, he put down $1,000 (which is $10,000 adjusted for inflation) to register to campaign for Governor of Texas. The John Birch Society was the main ideology that H.L. Hunt and General Edwin Walker had in common. But Walker was also a war hero, and I believe that H.L. Hunt was hoping that he might become another MacArthur, or at least capitalize on the American emotion that still persisted whenever anybody mentioned the name of General Douglas MacArthur. So - the LIFE LINE radio program was written by H.L. Hunt personally and I want to see those transcripts to detect the increased levels of rhetoric. My reasoning is transparent -- if (and only if) General Walker was involved in a plot to kill JFK, then H.L. Hunt would also be implicated. Also, since General Walker gave us a few slips of the pen (regarding his early belief that Oswald did not act alone) it might be possible that H.L. Hunt also gave us a few slips of the pen. I hope Texas Tech has those transcripts. Finally, Michael, as for the segregationist preacher, Billy James Hargis, he seems to figure large in this same picture. There is a rumor that Hargis once wrote speeches for Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare. Hargis was a political animal who used Bible Preaching and Red Scare tactics to make millions of dollars. His program was similar to LIFE LINE, but Hargis was able to pursue his Christian Crusade full-time, while H.L. Hunt only pursued LIFE LINE part time. Like many money-hungry, high-profile Evangelists, Hargis eventually ran into scandals involving missing millions, and sexual scandals (including homosexual scandals) with students at Bob Jones University. Always -- underneath the political exploitation of Christianity -- we have found corruption and a high level of secrecy. Hmm. Best regards, --Paul Trejo, MA Thanks for filling out the '59 event. General Walker had no visible means of support, yet he had a lot of money. There are quite a number of documents in the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission files that deal with a program against JFK's Civil Rights act of '63. (not as amended by LBJ) , a mullti pronged program aimed at defeating it built around state rights. Including the use of Radio. The JBS, the KKK, and the Southern Intelligence Network among others all had a role to play. (interestingly the version of KKK that sprung from the movie The Birth of a Nation ''05 (lauded in the controversial ridden The Red Badge of Courage movie Trailer of '51) was led by a 'righteous' 'christian' whose rape and murder of a white woman led to the end of that KKK version about '28. The Civil Rights movement revitalised it (it had also been revitalised in their America First, German Bund involvement prior to Pearl Harbour. (the KKK has gone through a number of iterations since formation)) and they were acting with near impunity at the time of, before and after JFK. Ooops that was a digression from the point about one document in the MSC files that point at a person in Midland who ran a fundraiser for Walker, HQ based in one of the Oil towers in Dallas, the corridors frequented by a number of usual subjects, the money going to Walker to be used at his discretion.. He ended up somewhere around redbird from where he ran a cancer treatment clinic. edit typos

Conroy urges probe into News Corp piracy claim ABC – Thu, Mar 29, 2012 1:41 AM AEDT The Federal Government has called for allegations of pay TV piracy against Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to be referred to the Australian Federal Police. The Australian Financial Review has reported that News Corp engaged in corporate hacking and piracy in a bid to damage its pay TV competitors in Australia. News Corporation is alleged to have used a security division known as Operational Security to encourage hackers to pirate the smart cards of rival pay TV operators including Austar and Optus, thereby draining them of revenue and devaluing the businesses. The smart cards are inserted into set-top boxes to unscramble pay TV signals. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy described the allegations as serious and called for them to be referred to the AFP. "These are serious allegations, and any allegations of criminal activity should be referred to the AFP for investigation," a spokeswoman for Senator Conroy said. News Corp has denied promoting piracy or sabotaging the commercial interests of its rivals. An Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) spokesman said "at this stage" the media watchdog was not investigating the allegations. He said the pay TV industry had its own code of practice established under a co-regulatory regime. ACMA monitors content but not issues such as piracy, the spokesman said. The Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association, which develops the relevant codes of practice with ACMA, declined to comment when contacted. Takeover bid The allegations come as the competition watchdog is finalising its approval of a takeover bid for Austar by Foxtel, of which News Corp owns 25 per cent. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is concerned the takeover would threaten competition in the industry. On Tuesday, the BBC aired allegations that a News Corporation subsidiary, NDS, recruited a hacker to acquire the smart card codes of ITV's ONdigital, the biggest pay TV rival to News Corp's Sky TV network in the United Kingdom. In a statement issued after the BBC aired its allegations, NDS denied it sabotaged the commercial interests of any rival and says it recruited hackers to track and catch other hackers and pirates. A Foxtel spokesman confirmed the company had used external service suppliers, including NDS. But he stressed there were no allegations of wrongdoing by Foxtel. "Foxtel has always worked hard and spent significant amounts of money to combat piracy," the spokesman said in a statement. "This has included running an extensive court case against pirates and working with the AFP, other subscription TV providers, including Austar, and advocating with government to enact effective laws to protect Australia's creative industries and legitimate consumers."Â ABC/wires @y7finance on Twitter

Wikileaks CIA Red Cell Memorandum on United States "exporting terrorism", 2 Feb 2010 Release dateAugust 25, 2010 Summary This CIA "Red Cell" report from February 2, 2010, looks at what will happen if it is internationally understood that the United States is an exporter of terrorism; 'Contrary to common belief, the American export of terrorism or terrorists is not a recent phenomenon, nor has it been associated only with Islamic radicals or people of Middle Eastern, African or South Asian ethnic origin. This dynamic belies the American belief that our free, open and integrated multicultural society lessens the allure of radicalism and terrorism for US citizens.' The report looks at a number cases of US exported terrorism, including attacks by US based or financed Jewish, Muslim and Irish-nationalism terrorists. It concludes that foreign perceptions of the US as an "Exporter of Terrorism" together with US double standards in international law, may lead to noncooperation in renditions (including the arrest of CIA officers) and the decision to not share terrorism related intelligence with the United States. Download File | Torrent | Magnet Further information Context United States Military or intelligence (ruling) Central Intelligence Agency Primary language EnglishFile size in bytes 209957File type information PDF document, version 1.4Cryptographic identity SHA256 8ff482396d9ae705e33c93c0e1e0d1c6f10d34e94a09bca5e12100ab83c24c31 <br style="clear: both;"> Categories: Leaked files | 2010 | 2010-08 | Analysis requested | United States | Military or intelligence (ruling) | Central Intelligence Agency | English

America's subversion of Haiti's democracy continues Even though former President Aristide has eschewed politics since his return from exile, the US is still threatening him Mark Weisbrot guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 March 2012 17.16 GMT When the "international community" blames Haiti for its political troubles, the underlying concept is usually that Haitians are not ready for democracy. But it is Washington that is not ready for democracy in Haiti. Haitians have been ready for democracy for many decades. They were ready when they got massacred at polling stations, trying to vote in 1987, after the fall of the murderous Duvalier dictatorship. They were ready again in 1990, when they voted by a two-thirds majority for the leftist Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, only to see him overthrown seven months later in a military coup. The coup was later found to have been organized by people paid by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Haitians were ready again, in 2000, when they elected Aristide a second time with 90% of the vote. But Washington would not accept the results of that election either, so it organized a cut-off of international aid to the government and poured millions into the opposition. As Paul Farmer (Bill Clinton's deputy special envoy of the UN to Haiti) testified to the US Congress in 2010: "Choking off assistance for development and for the provision of basic services also choked off oxygen to the government, which was the intention all along: to dislodge the Aristide administration." In 2004, Aristide was whisked away in one of those planes that the US government has used for "extraordinary rendition", and taken involuntarily to the Central African Republic. Eight years later, the US government is still not ready for democracy in Haiti. On 3 March, the Miami Herald reported that "Former Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is once again in the cross-hairs of the US government, this time for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars in bribes from Miami businesses …" Everything about these latest allegations smells foul, like the outhouses that haven't been cleaned for months in some of the camps where hundreds of thousands of Haitians displaced by the earthquake still languish. First, the source: Patrick Joseph was the head of Haiti's national telecommunications company (Teleco) until he was fired by then President Aristide for corruption in 2003. Fast forward nine years: last month, Joseph negotiates a guilty plea with US federal prosecutors for accepting $2.3m in bribes from US companies. As part of his co-operation deal, he agrees to testify and tells them that about half the money was for President Aristide. How convenient. That should knock a few years off his prison time. Then, there is the timing of the new charges. The first indictment in this case, in 2009, doesn't mention Aristide or anyone who could be him. The same is true for the second indictment, in July 2011, which added Patrick Joseph. But the January 2012 indictment mentions an unidentified "Official B" of the Haitian government; and now, we are told that "Official B", according to one of the defense attorneys in the case, is Aristide. How would he know? Officially, the US Justice Department has no comment on the matter, but seems the likely source for reports identifying Aristide. Why now? Aristide has been very quiet and has stayed out of politics since his return to Haiti, a year ago. He has focused on the University of the Aristide Foundation; closed since the 2004 coup, the medical school was able to reopen this past fall. But he still has the biggest base of any political figure in the country, and remains the only really popular, democratically elected leader Haiti has ever had. His party, Fanmi Lavalas, is still the most popular political party. Although it was wracked by political divisions while Aristide was in exile, it has reportedly become more unified since he has returned. Demonstrations on the eight-year anniversary of the 2004 coup – two weeks ago – drew thousands into the streets. "The display of popular support for Aristide is very worrisome to the US, so indicting Titid [Aristide] before a potential comeback makes perfect sense," Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia, told the Miami Herald. It makes even more sense if you look at what the US government – in collaboration with UN officials and other allies – has been doing to Aristide since they organized the 2004 coup against him. A classified US document, leaked by WikiLeaks, reports on a meeting between the then top-ranking State Department official for the hemisphere (Thomas Shannon), and the head of the UN military mission in Haiti (Edmund Mulet), in 2006. It describes their efforts to keep Aristide in exile in South Africa. Mulet also "urged US legal action against Aristide to prevent the former president from gaining more traction with the Haitian population and returning to Haiti". This latest episode is part of the "legal action" referred to in the document. So, too, were Washington's attempts to go after Aristide with trumped-up charges of involvement in drug-trafficking in 2004. These were also reliant on a convicted felon, a drug-dealer facing a long prison sentence. That case went nowhere, for the same reasons that this one will go nowhere: no evidence. In a last-ditch, illegal effort to prevent Aristide from returning to his home country last year, President Obama called South African President Jacob Zuma to persuade him to keep Aristide there. He also lobbied UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, but to no avail. The US government has spent millions, possibly tens of millions, of dollars trying to railroad Haiti's former president. On behalf of US taxpayers, we could use a congressional inquiry into this abuse of our tax dollars. It also erodes what we have left of an independent judiciary to have federal courts in Florida used as an instrument of foreign policy skullduggery. In Haiti, these attempts to deny people democratic rights tend to lead to instability. Imagine trying to tell Brazilians that former president Lula da Silva could not participate in politics in Brazil, and threatening to prosecute him in US courts. Or doing the same to Evo Morales in Bolivia, or Rafael Correa in Ecuador. It would never be tolerated. Yet, because Haitians are poor and black, Washington thinks it can get away trampling on their democratic rights. But too many Haitians have fought and died for these rights; they will not give them up so easily. ------------------ Contrast this with Cubas role in Haiti. (read Granma)

I think a different take on Clinton's supposed statement about JFK and UFO's may be rational. I mean this is an account of a conversation. Reports of sightings of unidentified flying objects could very well be keeping tabs on whether there had been noted an unexplained rise in air traffic in Arkansas in relation to the contra drug/gun trade. Add to that a number of parallel interests of groupings there is a connection in the two apparently odd requests.

I continue to find this package intriguing. There doesn't seem to be anything but speculation about its significance. I wonder where it is today?

He tried to resign in 1959. Could you elaborate on that, please, Paul?

bump

Cuba is possibly the most important sovereign nation in the world today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/mar/13/america-subversion-haiti-democracy America's subversion of Haiti's democracy continues Even though former President Aristide has eschewed politics since his return from exile, the US is still threatening him Haiti's former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, on his arrival in 2011 in Port-au-Prince after seven years of exile in South Africa. Photograph: Alexandre Meneghini/AP When the "international community" blames Haiti for its political troubles, the underlying concept is usually that Haitians are not ready for democracy. But it is Washington that is not ready for democracy in Haiti. Haitians have been ready for democracy for many decades. They were ready when they got massacred at polling stations, trying to vote in 1987, after the fall of the murderous Duvalier dictatorship. They were ready again in 1990, when they voted by a two-thirds majority for the leftist Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, only to see him overthrown seven months later in a military coup. The coup was later found to have been organized by people paid by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Haitians were ready again, in 2000, when they elected Aristide a second time with 90% of the vote. But Washington would not accept the results of that election either, so it organized a cut-off of international aid to the government and poured millions into the opposition. As Paul Farmer (Bill Clinton's deputy special envoy of the UN to Haiti) testified to the US Congress in 2010: "Choking off assistance for development and for the provision of basic services also choked off oxygen to the government, which was the intention all along: to dislodge the Aristide administration." In 2004, Aristide was whisked away in one of those planes that the US government has used for "extraordinary rendition", and taken involuntarily to the Central African Republic. Eight years later, the US government is still not ready for democracy in Haiti. On 3 March, the Miami Herald reported that "Former Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is once again in the cross-hairs of the US government, this time for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars in bribes from Miami businesses …" Everything about these latest allegations smells foul, like the outhouses that haven't been cleaned for months in some of the camps where hundreds of thousands of Haitians displaced by the earthquake still languish. First, the source: Patrick Joseph was the head of Haiti's national telecommunications company (Teleco) until he was fired by then President Aristide for corruption in 2003. Fast forward nine years: last month, Joseph negotiates a guilty plea with US federal prosecutors for accepting $2.3m in bribes from US companies. As part of his co-operation deal, he agrees to testify and tells them that about half the money was for President Aristide. How convenient. That should knock a few years off his prison time. Then, there is the timing of the new charges. The first indictment in this case, in 2009, doesn't mention Aristide or anyone who could be him. The same is true for the second indictment, in July 2011, which added Patrick Joseph. But the January 2012 indictment mentions an unidentified "Official B" of the Haitian government; and now, we are told that "Official B", according to one of the defense attorneys in the case, is Aristide. How would he know? Officially, the US Justice Department has no comment on the matter, but seems the likely source for reports identifying Aristide. Why now? Aristide has been very quiet and has stayed out of politics since his return to Haiti, a year ago. He has focused on the University of the Aristide Foundation; closed since the 2004 coup, the medical school was able to reopen this past fall. But he still has the biggest base of any political figure in the country, and remains the only really popular, democratically elected leader Haiti has ever had. His party, Fanmi Lavalas, is still the most popular political party. Although it was wracked by political divisions while Aristide was in exile, it has reportedly become more unified since he has returned. Demonstrations on the eight-year anniversary of the 2004 coup – two weeks ago – drew thousands into the streets. "The display of popular support for Aristide is very worrisome to the US, so indicting Titid [Aristide] before a potential comeback makes perfect sense," Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia, told the Miami Herald. It makes even more sense if you look at what the US government – in collaboration with UN officials and other allies – has been doing to Aristide since they organized the 2004 coup against him. A classified US document, leaked by WikiLeaks, reports on a meeting between the then top-ranking State Department official for the hemisphere (Thomas Shannon), and the head of the UN military mission in Haiti (Edmund Mulet), in 2006. It describes their efforts to keep Aristide in exile in South Africa. Mulet also "urged US legal action against Aristide to prevent the former president from gaining more traction with the Haitian population and returning to Haiti". This latest episode is part of the "legal action" referred to in the document. So, too, were Washington's attempts to go after Aristide with trumped-up charges of involvement in drug-trafficking in 2004. These were also reliant on a convicted felon, a drug-dealer facing a long prison sentence. That case went nowhere, for the same reasons that this one will go nowhere: no evidence. In a last-ditch, illegal effort to prevent Aristide from returning to his home country last year, President Obama called South African President Jacob Zuma to persuade him to keep Aristide there. He also lobbied UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, but to no avail. The US government has spent millions, possibly tens of millions, of dollars trying to railroad Haiti's former president. On behalf of US taxpayers, we could use a congressional inquiry into this abuse of our tax dollars. It also erodes what we have left of an independent judiciary to have federal courts in Florida used as an instrument of foreign policy skullduggery. In Haiti, these attempts to deny people democratic rights tend to lead to instability. Imagine trying to tell Brazilians that former president Lula da Silva could not participate in politics in Brazil, and threatening to prosecute him in US courts. Or doing the same to Evo Morales in Bolivia, or Rafael Correa in Ecuador. It would never be tolerated. Yet, because Haitians are poor and black, Washington thinks it can get away trampling on their democratic rights. But too many Haitians have fought and died for these rights; they will not give them up so easily.

topic title correction : whi is who

http://www.chicagocubacoalition.org/

http://www.chicagocubacoalition.org/ Humor from My Pen March 9 - April 38 2012

During the Contra arms/drugs flights there would have been unidentified flying 'objects' in and out of the US. Arkansas?

Walk all around the periphery, taking time to pause and ponder all views. When in the cellar, see if you can see where the sewer outlet is. Ditto the TSBD basement. Measure the size of the bricks on the sixth floor as well as an average for the mortar joints. Buy a sonar setup to map the underground of the plaza.

Tom, I think you have the necessary skill set to do the graphics and what may seem difficult will quickly become not so. I think in the long run it is better all around if you do the graphics. I think that doing it will set you free to do more in the future. What do you think? edit add I still wish to help, and I think helping you do it if necessary is in the end best imo. I and others can help with techniques. I think that, if it happens will be a benefit to a number of people without diverting from the basic points you wish to make. So, I'm not bailing out at all, but rather helping in a way I think is more helpful. ?

A very happy birthday to you, Kathy. ---------'--,--@

Climate catastrophe on our door step Saturday, March 17, 2012 By Peter BoyleThe latest State of the Climate report by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO was launched at a weather monitoring station on remote Cape Grim in Tasmania. The location was an apt choice for a report that has very bad news about Australia's continuing failure to respond adequately to the climate change crisis. The report says each decade since the 1950s has been warmer. Annual-average daily mean temperatures have increased 0.9% since 1910 and annual-average overnight minimum temperatures have warmed by more than 1.1% since 1910. The recent two years of wetter weather, due to the La Nina effect, do not mean this long-term warming trend has ended. The report said last year “was the world’s 11th warmest year and the warmest year on record during a La Nina event”. The world’s 13 warmest years on record have all been in the past 15 years. La Nina is related to warmer-than-average ocean temperatures around Australia and sea-surface temperatures around Australia have risen faster than the global average, the report said. The report projected an average temperature rise in Australia of 1-5ｰC by 2070, long-term drying over southern and eastern Australia and more extreme weather such as floods, droughts and cyclones. CSIRO research says an average temperature rise of just 1-2ｰC would bleach 58-81% of the Great Barrier Reef each year. Core habitat for vertebrates in the northern tropics would drop 90%. Three to four degrees would kill 95% of Great Barrier Reef species, shrink 20-85% of total snow-covered area in the Australian Alps and ruin 30–70% of core habitat for Victoria and highland tropical vertebrate species. If average temperatures rise above 5°C, Australia will lose 90–100% of core habitat for most vertebrates. The State of the Climate report said the global average sea level last year was 210mm above 1880 levels and rose faster between 1993 and 2011 than during the entire 20th century. The report said greenhouse gases continue to rise exponentially. Carbon dioxide has reached 390 parts per million in the atmosphere. It is almost too late to take the radical action needed to avert catastrophic climate change. And if the voices of reason don’t prevail over powerful vested interests blocking such action, then we could pass that point soon. Green Left Weekly needs your urgent help to step up the fight against these powerful vested interests. Our objective is to raise $250,000 for our Fighting Fund by the end of thes year. You can donate online today to the Green Left Fighting Fund. Direct deposits can be made to Greenleft, Commonwealth Bank, BSB 062-006, Account No. 00901992. Otherwise, you can send a cheque or money order to PO Box 515, Broadway NSW 2007 or donate on the toll-free line at 1800 634 206 (within Australia). From GLW issue 915

Venezuela’s hip-hop revolutionaries Tuesday, March 20, 2012 Hip Hop Revolucion class. The oil-rich South American nation of Venezuela is in the midst of a complicated and contradictory process of social transformation. The revolutionary movement, headed by President Hugo Chavez, is redistributing wealth, bringing key industries under state ownership and promoting experiments in direct, participatory democracy. The aim of the Bolivarian revolution is to build a “socialism for the 21st century”. Driven by the direct involvement of the previously excluded poor majority, the revolution has a strong cultural aspect. A new documentary Hip Hop Revolucion investigates the role of hip hop in the process of change. Made by filmmaker Pablo Navarrete and journalist Jody McIntyre, the film will be released later this year. Visit www.alborada.net for more information. The article by Navarrete and McIntyre below is slightly abridged from the Latin America Bureau. * * * Venezuela’s Hip Hop Revolucion (HHR) movement was founded in 2003 and brings together like-minded young people from across the country. As well as organising several international revolutionary hip hop festivals, HHR has created 31 hip-hop schools across the country. Teenagers can attend in conjunction with their normal day-to-day schooling. We were told that normally those attending the hip-hop schools learned hip hop skills for four days a week and had one day of political discussion. However, in some schools those attending had decided they preferred the ratio the other way round. Once participants have “graduated” from the course, they are encouraged to become tutors to the next batch of attendees. Most graduates come from low-income backgrounds, and many go on to establish schools in their local areas. At a hip hop school we visited near Charallave, about an hour south of Caracas, one student told us how he had done just that. First, he approached the political leaders in the area, and they agreed that the project was a strong idea. Then, he approached the gang leaders in the neighbourhood, and they agreed to make sure the kids got to and from their classes without being hassled. To many participants, the hip hop schools are another element of a new spirit of unity and solidarity in their local communities. In their eyes, hip hop and the political struggle are inextricably linked, and this is their chance to play a part in building a better future. HHR took us to a nearby barrio for a show local HHR members were putting on for the community. As the music started, kids came out from their houses; most of them were still dressed in their school uniforms. Entire families came out to their balconies to watch. These hip hop workshops are a monthly occurrence, so the young people in the area know when to come. Unfortunately, that afternoon it was pouring with rain, which apparently kept many people indoors. Nevertheless, a crowd quickly grew. Many of the kids were very young, and, without shoes or a care in the world, they washed their feet in the huge puddles of rainwater. The barrios are at the heart of the HHR movement, and the crowd at the workshop we visited were captivated by the rapping and break-dancing on display. Our trip to Venezuela also coincided with the inauguration and first ever conference of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Thirty-three presidents from all of the countries of the Americas (except the US and Canada) were in Caracas for the event. Photo exhibitions displayed on central avenues of Caracas in the days preceding the conference expressed solidarity with the people of Cuba, Libya, Iraq, the workers' movement in Argentina, the Palestinian people, and the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US among others. “CELAC is the most important development in the last 200 years,” Jamil, a member of HHR, told us. “We respect Chavez, because he understands our struggle, but we are always looking to be self-critical in order to keep our revolution moving in the right direction... “I'm a revolutionary from my heart. [if] Chavez xxxxs around and flips on us, we're gonna flip on him. “And that's what I think he expects from us. That's why he is so serious with his proposals and with what he does. He has the confidence that he won't flip on the people. “And he understands that capitalism is crumbling. And this is our time, this is our moment, for Latin America, for Venezuela and for us.” http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/50435

Thank you Tom. I'll have to say goodnight for now.

How do you know that?